5 Tactics to Get Messages from Finance Heard, Acted On

Just because your messages from Finance are important doesn’t mean people will listen and act on them.

Whether you send a corporate-wide email on something as important as payroll updates, or a short message to a few people on a meeting time, the chances it’ll prompt action aren’t great.

What’s the problem?

Finance communication is often oversaturated – too much, too often. That’s especially true as some people work remotely full-time or part-time.

What Works for Finance Messages?

“Bursts of rapid-fire communications, with longer periods of silence in between, are hallmarks of success …,” Christoph Riedl and Anita Williams Woolley noted in their long-standing, well-referenced research. “Those silent periods are when team members often form and develop their ideas. (It’s) deep work that may generate the next steps in a project or the solution to a challenge faced by the group.”

Effective communication takes a lot more than nonstop morning chats and silence the rest of the day. Good communication from Finance includes these best practices from Riedl and Williams Woolley.

1. Schedule It

Communication through messaging – email, text, Slack and other apps – isn’t as productive as real-time communication. Communication Bursts are more effective when people are together in person, on the phone or over video.

So it’s important to schedule time to talk with your team regularly — even daily, if possible. It might be difficult with a remote group juggling other responsibilities. But researchers said many teams find agreeable times early and late in the day. That way, important messages are far less likely to be ignored.

2. Earmark Purpose, Outcome

Because it can be hard to find the perfect “bursty time,” it’s critical to make the most of the time you have when you get people together to discuss.

Earmark a purpose and outcome for conversations so everyone gets out as much as they put in. This is especially important if your message is for a bigger group, such as company-wide announcements from Finance.

When employees come out of well-organized Communication Bursts, they’re prepared to act quickly and as needed on the information.

3. Foster Silence

Efforts to communicate effectively will be useless if employees can’t stay focused on their individual work after hearing it.

Encourage employees to schedule silent periods so they can take the next steps in the project, stick to their most important tasks and/or develop needed new ideas and solutions based on what’s been shared.

4. Try Less Video

This could be the most surprising outcome of their research: Teams communicate more effectively using audio over video.

Without visual cues (which are limited on computer screens), team members speak and listen more evenly during calls.

Plus, the quality of the interaction increases. The group might have more “collective intelligence.” They come up with more impactful ideas, share more useful information and increase team effectiveness.

5. Aim for Less Content, More Quality

Beyond bursty communication, when you use email and other forms of asynchronous communication with your team, create focused messages. Researchers found that the fewer ideas in a message, the more likely the message is to get the necessary action or response.

For instance, if you have three things to cover, send three separate emails instead of one. It’s easier to get in-depth and exchange ideas about each topic. Again, this is especially important when your message is meant for the masses.